Notes: Astros hope to enjoy some soft serve today

The Astros will see a novelty of sorts in the second game of their series against the Brewers.
A soft-tossing righthander. A successful one, at that.

Shaun Marcum will take a 39-26 career record to the mound. He picked up 37 of those victories with the Toronto Blue Jays, working off a fastball in the 85-mph range. He is a master with the changeup, and the Astros have the disadvantage of never having faced him.

His pitches tend to look so tempting, so hittable. Don’t be fooled, Astros hitting instructor Mike Barnett tells his pupils.

“I just watched him throw 90 pitches,” Barnett said. “He actually only threw 39 of them for strikes. The thing for us is we’ve got to really force him to get the ball up over the plate and not chase (pitches out of the strike zone). He’s got a very good feel for executing the change up.”

Usually, lefthanders have the patent on that approach.

“Guys step in there against a righthander who throws below batting speed,” Barnett said. “He changes speeds and expands the strike zone of hitters.”

Under the thumb

The Astros lost their manager and their pitching coach during the second inning of a 14-7 loss to Milwaukee on Friday.

Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg got into a heated exchange with home-plate umpire Paul Schreiber after a mound visit with pitcher Nelson Figueroa, who had walked the first two batters of the inning on nine pitches. Schreiber ejected Arnsberg, prompting Astros manager Brad Mills to come out to protest.

Seconds later, second-base umpire and crew chief Joe West had banished Mills to the Astros’ clubhouse with Arnsberg. It was Mills’ third ejection as Astros manager — his second of the season. Mills also got tossed in the ninth inning April 10 after Aneury Rodriguez hit the Marlins’ Gary Sanchez with a pitch.

“It was unfortunate,” Mills said, declining to elaborate on what happened.

Figueroa said he didn’t hear the discussion that led to either ejection.

“They were walking off together, just chit-chatting back and forth, and the next thing, they tossed him,” Figueroa said.

Change in plans

The Astros have pushed back the rehab assignment timetable of shortstop Clint Barmes a day.
Barmes will join Class AAA Oklahoma City on Monday instead of Sunday and play two games. He will then join Class AA Corpus Christi in Midland for at least one game.

As eager as Barmes is to get on the field, he admittedly isn’t sure how quickly he’ll be major league ready.

“Ideally, it works out where I’m playing well and I’m comfortable and three games are all I need,” Barmes said. “We won’t know how that stuff goes until I’m out there and I’m actually going through it.”

Odds and ends

Though Yovani Gallardo improved his record against the Astros to 8-2, he had to work for it. He had a 3.05 ERA against the Astros before getting touched up for four runs on eight hits in six innings. “The way our offense is turning over, I think we’re starting to find our rhythm,” said first baseman Brett Wallace, who joined Michael Bourn and Humberto Quintero in the Astros’ three-hit parade. “We never feel like we’re out of it. We’re hitting aggressive, putting it in play hard. Guys are taking their walks. Guys are moving them over. One through nine, we believe in everybody.” … Bourn extended his stolen-base streak to 17 (9-for-9) this season in the third inning Friday.